Chapter 57 One Hundred Thousand Heavenly Soldiers Arrive at Luoyang Ten Ten
Looking at the busy soldiers on the tower, Yun Zheng sighed. Even though these soldiers seemed busy on the tower, they were actually disorganized and had no rules at all.
degree
Recently sending troops to the south, Yun Zheng often feels that the world is lucky to have four major border towns, and it is lucky to have the Yun family, otherwise the fate of the Northern Song Dynasty must be the fate of the Wei Dynasty
If we don’t talk about border towns, the Wei Dynasty is actually too similar to the Northern Song Dynasty
When later generations talk about Chinese history, they usually like to add an adjective to the Qin Dynasty during the Warring States Period and say it was a "strong Qin". When talking about the Song Dynasty, they often describe it as a "weak Song Dynasty".
This is indeed true from a military perspective. Among the dynasties in the history of our country, there seem to be very few dynasties as weak and weak as the Song Dynasty. Although the Song Dynasty barely completed the unification, it could never build a strong country, and it could not even get rid of the fate of poverty and weakness. Strictly speaking, it could not build a strong country.
Later, the Song Dynasty could only be regarded as a relatively peaceful situation since the founding of the country, and it had always been facing foreign aggression. Why was the Northern Song Dynasty so weak? This is a question that not only historians, but especially strategists should explore in depth.
Because research on this issue can give people a lot of inspiration and lessons
Yunzheng has been thinking about these issues since he began to learn to look at the overall situation. There was no civil strife in the Song Dynasty, and even a few banditry was not serious ("Water Margin" is a novel that is not enough evidence). Politically speaking, it can be regarded as quite clear.
Issues such as powerful ministers, relatives, heroines, and eunuchs that have always troubled Chinese politics almost completely disappear. This is a rare phenomenon in Chinese political history. To describe it in modern terms, the politics of the Song Dynasty can be said to be quite free and open.
At least the scholar-bureaucrat class enjoys a high degree of freedom of speech. As far as the general social class is concerned, they can also live a refined life. According to the research of foreigners, the sound of water and the fragrance of flowers are everywhere in Kaifeng City. The ecological environment is well protected and the folk customs are weak.
The natural consequences of the way of life, officials sitting in sedan chairs, and the custom of women's foot binding all originated from this era
From the perspective of internal affairs, the achievements of the Song Dynasty are definitely no worse than those of any other dynasty. However, it is a pity that internal security is not enough to resist foreign aggression. The demise of the Song Dynasty was due to foreign aggression. This is a very alarming fact. Modern Western scholars have discussed the country
When it comes to interests, survival is considered the most important thing. If the government cannot ensure the survival of its country, then all other achievements, no matter how significant they are, will still be equal to zero. The past events of the Song Dynasty are thought-provoking in this regard.
The reason why the Wei Dynasty was better than the Song Dynasty, Yun Zheng thinks, is mainly due to the four major border towns, especially the Yun family and the Zhou family. The Song Dynasty government adopted an attitude of respect and preferential treatment for the literati, while it adopted a contemptuous and suppressive attitude towards the military men.
The so-called principle of "literati managing the army" was indeed thoroughly implemented in the Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, the imperial examination was used to select scholars. There was a trend of "one examination determines the life". Some people even said, "If the number one scholar reaches the rank, even if he has hundreds of thousands of soldiers, the restoration of Youji...
…The glory of the Imperial Ancestral Temple is presented to the Jie family.” (quoted by Yin Zhu) In this atmosphere, professional soldiers feel ashamed of themselves, completely lose their self-esteem, and they are insignificant and have no say in state affairs. On the other hand, literati are all asking for examinations.
Digging into the narrow gate, just to study for the exam, so no one pays attention to all the knowledge of world affairs. Therefore, Liu Kezhuang in the Southern Song Dynasty has a poem: "The first emperor established the country with scholars, and most of the outstanding scholars were restricted by pen and ink."
This was not the case in the Wei Dynasty. Each of the generals under Emperor Taizu had his own soldiers, so Taizu himself could not reduce their military power, so he simply pretended to believe in their loyalty and granted eight hereditary substitutes.
The famous family, and four of them were divided into border towns. In this way, the status of the warriors was guaranteed, and the warriors still had the power to speak in the court. The Yunzhou family and other families also had power in the court, so the literati could not completely
Suppressing the warriors, the Wei Dynasty managed to withstand the intrusions of Liao and Xixia, until now civil strife broke out
Then came the reforms. Both the reforms of the Song Dynasty and those of the Wei Dynasty caused great trouble. Later, many people said that the fall of the Song Dynasty was caused by the stubborn gentleman Wang Anshi; and the reason why the Wei Dynasty is so anxious now is probably because of everything.
The reason why Changda uses Qiu Linjiang
Most people are aware of Wang Anshi's reform. In fact, there were two reforms in the Song Dynasty: one was Fan Zhongyan's reform in the third year of Renzong's Qingli reign; the other was Wang Anshi's reform in the second year of Shenzong's Xining. The former can be regarded as the forerunner of the latter.
Renzong was deeply aware of the invasion of Liao and Xia, and his finances were on the verge of collapse, so he decided to re-appoint Fan Zhongyan, who "takes the world as his own responsibility", and asked him to take responsibility for reforms. Fan then proposed ten political opinions to formulate the reform plan (the famous "
"Ten Matters") whose items are: (1) clearing the emperor; (2) suppressing luck; (3) fine tribute; (4) selecting officials; (5) equalizing public land; (6) supporting farmers and mulberry; (
7) Repair of military equipment; (8) Reduction of corvee; (9) Qin Enxin; (10) Emphasis on orders. In summary, the first five items belong to the scope of personnel reform, the last two are aimed at improving administrative efficiency, and only the sixth
and item 8 are related to the economy, while those related to national defense are only item 7
It can be seen from this that Fan's view is that we must start from the fundamentals, first improve the quality of civil servants and improve administrative efficiency, otherwise other policies, no matter how good they are, will not be able to promote this concept. This concept is undoubtedly correct, but it must take time to develop.
hope of success
Renzong accepted almost all of his suggestions (only the seventh concept of restoring the imperial army was rejected due to opposition from courtiers). However, Fan Zhongyan's reform plan conflicted with the vested interests of the scholar-bureaucrats (the bureaucratic group), so it aroused great opposition.
A year later, he felt overwhelmed and had no choice but to leave. Renzong did not dare to fight against the surging public opinion across the country, so he simply gave up the idea of reform.
However, the demand for reform actually still exists. Although Fan Zhongyan's attempt failed, Wang Anshi followed him less than 30 years ago. Wang Anshi's reform was not only larger in scale, but also lasted longer, so its impact and status in history
It was also far more than Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi was known by Shenzong Teda. He became prime minister in the second year of Xining, and in the sixth year of Xining, a total of 5 years. The new law was established. In April of the seventh year of Xining, the new law was suspended and Wang Anshi also stopped.
He returned to the throne in February of the eighth year of the reign of Emperor Xiang, and passed again in October of the ninth year of the reign of Emperor Xiang. However, Shenzong continued to implement the new laws (most of them were abolished when Shenzong died in 1085, the eighth year of Yuanfeng) until they were completely abolished in the first year of Yuanyou, the reign of Emperor Zhezong.
Therefore, the implementation of the new law took a total of 17 years;
The content of the so-called new law is quite complicated, and there are so many items that it is difficult to enumerate and summarize it. It can be divided into three major categories: (1) Economic policies, such as "equal losses", "exemption", "square fields", "water conservancy", etc.;
(2) Social policies, such as "green crops", "exemption from service", "harmony", "market changes", etc.; (3) National defense policies, such as "protect armor", "protect horses", "replace generals", "arms"
The following points are particularly noteworthy about Wang Anshi's reforms: (1) He is very different from Fan Zhongyan, that is, Fan attaches great importance to personnel and administrative reforms, while he does not consider these issues at all and only focuses on the establishment of new systems.
Some people think that this is the difference between Confucianism and Legalism, that is, the difference between the two ideas of rule by man and rule by law. In fact, this is not necessarily the case. Wang Anshi never regarded himself as a Legalist, and often regarded himself as Mencius. The real reason may be that he saw Fan Zhongyan's failure.
We are vigilant and know that personnel is a very sensitive issue, and we do not want to make too many enemies because of it. (2) Wang's new policies are almost all long-term plans and cannot provide immediate and effective solutions to current problems. The serious illness of the Song Dynasty was poverty.
and weak, and the key to the problem is how to eliminate redundant troops and redundant officials. His New Deal can be said to be irrelevant to the topic. In order to implement the New Deal, he increased the number of institutions and personnel, and in order to make a small contribution, naturally he cannot reduce the army.
(3) Wang's style is very special. Generally speaking, he almost doesn't move old things at all (this may be because he is afraid of opposition), but at the same time he adds many new things. This method of stacking bed frames is completely inconsistent with the administration.
management principles, so his reform efficiency is extremely poor
Although Wang Anshi's new law was barely implemented for 17 years, its final failure was doomed and could not be undone by any human effort. Therefore, future generations do not need to spend too much time reviewing the reasons for its failure. On the other hand,
It is worth pointing out that even if the new method achieves a considerable degree of success, it will still not do much to remedy the weakness of the Song Dynasty. The disease in the Song Dynasty was already serious by the time Shenzong reached Shenzong, and surgery or injection of special medicines was necessary for treatment. Wang Anshi
The prescribed medicines were only some warming tonics, such as vitamins, etc. Although these medicines were good for health, they could not cure serious illnesses, so they were based on facts. The two reforms of the Song Dynasty were in vain.
The late contemporary strategic master, General Beaufort of France, once pointed out: The fate of mankind is determined by two factors, one is philosophical thought, and the other is strategy. Strategy should be guided by philosophical thought, but appropriate strategic choices are guaranteed by philosophy.
The only way for ideas to be realized. Both Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi lacked philosophical ideas, but they failed to choose appropriate strategies. This was actually the main reason why the reform failed.
Yun Zheng's thought at the moment was that the Wei Dynasty was hopeless. Although if there were no Ba bandits and Zhejiang bandits now, the Wei court would still seem to be a prosperous court, but in fact Yun Zheng felt that its roots were rotten.
Now, he has a lot less worries. This Wei Dynasty can no longer be messed around by the Lin family.
Ning Pengxuan suddenly appeared in the handsome tent. No one knew how he came. Yunzheng himself
"Brother Feng, Lin Jian asked you to have a chat in Hulao tonight," Ning Pengxuan said calmly.
Yun Zheng glanced at him and asked, "What does he want to do?"
"He said that he had an autographed edict left to him by the late emperor, which proved that he was forced to lurk under the command of the rebel Lin Xu."
Yun Zheng smiled: "Promise him that I will be there tonight and let him decide the location."
Ning Pengxuan didn't urge him to think twice before acting. He knew that Yun Zheng must be sure of victory, and knew that Lin Jian couldn't explain why he said that.
"Yes, Brother Feng, I'll go then"
"Go." Yun Zheng turned around and sat down, saying calmly.
